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Even if you’ve picked up a new card or two in recent years, that doesn’t mean you have the right business credit card. Ask yourself whether you’re able to take full advantage of what the card offers — or if your card leaves you wanting more. Either way, this may be an indication it’s time to start shopping around for a better way to maximize rewards and benefits on your business spending.

Let’s look at eight signs it’s time to look for a new business credit card.

But that’s just the beginning. A business credit card also will allow you to start building business credit, which in turn can improve your odds for favorable bank financing later on as your business grows. Putting your business spending where it belongs also will reduce the strain you’re putting on your personal credit score, which may be suffering because you’re approaching your credit limit every month by placing business expenses on your personal credit cards.

2. Your Business Puts a Bunch of Money on Cards

You might be earning a great return on your business spending and still be missing out. That 2% or better return you’re getting on most spending is helping you put money back into your business. But here are two areas where you might not be taking advantage of what big spending can do for you: Earning welcome bonus rewards and rewards and benefits for meeting annual spending targets.

Amex’s Business Platinum card, which we mentioned at the top of this post, is offering a 75,000-point welcome bonus. You’ll have to complete some pretty heavy spending to capture the full bonus, but if your business has a large budget, this should be no problem. Earn 50,000 Membership Rewards points with the Business Platinum after you spend $10,000 in the first three months and an extra 25,000 points after you spend an additional $10,000 also within the first three months from account opening. The full welcome bonus is worth $1,425, based on TPG’s most recent valuations of American Express’ Membership Rewards.

Use your monthly spending to your advantage by picking up a credit card that offers extras (like elite airline or hotel status) when you accrue $10,000 or more in annual spending. Here are some examples:

3. Your Business Has Changed

You don’t have to pay an annual fee when you give your employees company credit cards. (Photo by Luis Alvarez / Getty Images)

Think back to when you were just getting started. Here are a few possible scenarios that might reflect your experience:

Your client base was mostly local, which meant you had reason to expense the occasional client dinner or night at the ball game, but you weren’t getting on planes very often. Now your customers are spread throughout the country and you have to travel frequently. Even if your cash-back business card is great, you’re probably not taking full advantage of the rewards available to you. Consider a business card that offers top rewards on travel-related purchases. The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express pays 3x Membership Rewards points on one of five categories you get to select — airfare purchased directly from airlines, US purchases for advertising in select media, US purchases at gas stations, US purchases for shipping and US computer hardware, software, and cloud computing made directly from select providers — and then 2x on the remaining four, with a limit of $100,000 in purchases each year in each of the five categories. Spend $5,000 annually on airfare and you’ll see a return of 15,000 Membership Rewards points, worth $285 based on our valuations.

You were Employee No. 1 when you started out. There was no employee No. 2. Now you manage several (or more) people, some of whom you have given spending authority. Is your credit card prepared for this? Are you prepared to pay the sometimes big annual fees attached to authorized user cards? If not, find a business credit card that offers free employee cards. There are a bunch, including the Capital One Spark Cash for Business and the Capital One Spark Miles for Business.

4. You’re Not Taking Full Advantage of All Your Spending

You found a great card to pay for business travel, and you opened a card like the SimplyCash® Plus Business Credit Card from American Express, which offers top rewards on purchases like office supplies. With this card, you earn 5% cash back at US office supply stores and on wireless telephone services purchased directly from US service providers on up to $50,000 in purchases during a calendar year, then 1% thereafter. Earn 3% cash back on up to $50,000 in annual spending (then 1%) from one of eight categories you pick from — airfare purchased directly from airlines, hotel rooms purchased directly from hotels, car rentals purchased from select car rental companies, US gas stations, US restaurants, US purchases for advertising in select media, US purchases for shipping and US computer hardware, software, and cloud computing purchases made directly from select providers. You’ll earn 1% cash back on all other eligible spending.

You earn 1.5% cash back on all purchases with the Ink Business Unlimited Card. Because you can transfer your rewards to a Chase credit card account you own that’s part of the Ultimate Rewards program, that 1.5% becomes 1.5x Ultimate Rewards points worth 2.1 cents apiece, according to TPG’s latest valuations. Your return is worth up to 3.15%.

Blue Business Plus offers an even better return: You’ll earn 2x Membership Rewards points on all purchases for the first $50,000 you spend each calendar year, then 1x point thereafter. Since Amex points are worth 1.9 cents each, according to TPG valuations, you’re looking at a return on all spending of almost 4%.

5. Card Perks You Love Have Changed

Credit card companies are cutting back on benefits that used to be pretty standard, like price protection and purchase protection. If card benefits were a factor in your decision to apply for a business credit card in the first place, you should be sure to check whether you still receive them. The only major issuer not to announce a rollback of benefits recently is American Express, which will offer improvements to its purchase protection and extended warranty benefits on both consumer and business credit cards beginning August 1, 2018.

7. Your Card’s Interest Rate Is High

Paying off your balance on time and in full every month is an important way to keep business costs in line and make sure you’re receiving the full value of your rewards. If you carry a balance — even occasionally — you may be paying too much in interest. Business credit cards tend to carry higher interest rates than their consumer counterparts. With interest rates on the rise for everyone, you may want to consider a small business credit card that offers some period of interest-free financing. A few solid examples include:

Ink Business Cash Credit Card, which offers a 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for 12 months, then 15.24% to 21.24% variable. Pay $5 or 5% of the amount transferred on balance transfers, whichever is higher. There is no annual fee.

8. You Need to Make a Big Business Purchase

You may have your budgeted expenses covered by a business credit card that offers solid rewards in the bonus categories for which you spend the most. But what about expenses that aren’t in your budget or are one-time large needs?

You’ll want to look for a credit card that offers a few sound features, like the ability to charge more than your credit limit (or, even better, a card that has no set spending limit). Charge cards don’t come with a set spending limit (that doesn’t mean you have unlimited spending), and you’ll want to look at the American Express portfolio of small business cards if the need financing for large purchases. You’ll have to pay off your bill in full at the end of the month, but you can also take advantage of extra rewards on a card like the Business Platinum, which pays 1.5x points on a single purchase of $5,000 or more.

If you need to carry a balance for more than 30 days, The Plum Card® from American Express gives cardholders 60 days to pay off a balance before accruing interest. You’ll have to make your minimum payment — 10% of the balance from new charges plus any previously deferred balance in full — by the due date to avoid interest. In months where cash flow isn’t a problem, you can also enjoy a 1.5% discount on the portion of eligible charges you pay off within 10 days of your statement closing date.

Bottom Line

You may be completely satisfied with the credit cards you’re using today to help finance your business. And that’s great. But as you look for ways to keep your budgeted expenses in check, don’t forget to look at how credit cards can play into the equation. You may just find that adding a new business card can improve your firm’s bottom line — or increase the rewards and free travel you and your employees can enjoy.

Feature image by Olu Eletu via Unsplash.

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Aside from the 75,000 points welcome bonus, Amex recently made huge improvements to the Business Platinum Card, including the fact that you will now earn 50% more points on purchases of $5,000 or more, earn 5x on flights and eligible hotels at Amextravel.com and cardholders will receive a $200 airline fee credit each year.

Earn 50,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $10,000 and an extra 25,000 points after you spend an additional $10,000 all on qualifying purchases within your first 3 months of Card Membership.†

Get 5X Membership Rewards® points on flights and prepaid hotels on amextravel.com.

Get 50% more Membership Rewards® points. That's 1.5 points per dollar, on each eligible purchase of $5,000 or more. You can get up to 1 million additional points per year.

35% Airline Bonus: Use Membership Rewards® Pay with Points for all or part of a flight with your selected qualifying airline, and you can get 35% of the points back, up to 500,000 bonus points per calendar year.

You can also receive 35% points back on all First and Business class flights, with all airlines available through American Express Travel.

You can enjoy access to The American Express Global Lounge Collection℠ offering access to the most lounges across the globe, when compared with other U.S. credit card offerings. As of 11/2017

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The credit card offers that appear on the website are from credit card companies from which ThePointsGuy.com receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). This site does not include all credit card companies or all available credit card offers. Please view our advertising policy page for more information.

Editorial Note: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.